In honor of the tragic passing of Murder, She Wrote , Nanny McPhee , Beauty And The Beast , and Bedknobs And Broomsticks star, Angela Lansbury, we’ve complied some of the most intriguing tidbits about her long, wonderful life.
After nearly a century of life, she left a long legacy for us to delve into.
RELATED STORIES
Here are some facts about Angela that fans probably didn’t know.
1. Her father passed away when she was young.
Angela’s father passed away when he was 48 years old, and she was nine.
“Looking back, I think that was the defining moment of my life. Nothing before or since has ever affected me so deeply. It also altered the shape of my life,” she told Daily Mail .
“I lost interest in my school work although I was never very academic. I became something of a dreamer, lost in my grief.”
“In time, I became much more interested in acting,” she explained .
2. In 1949 she married Peter Shaw, her agent and manager at the time.
While Angela was previously married to someone else, after her divorce she became very close with her agent and manager, Peter Shaw.
The pair ended up tying the knot in 1949.
3. She was married to Peter Shaw for 53 years.
Sadly, Peter passed away in 2003 due to heart failure.
“We had the perfect relationship. Not many people can say that. He was everything to me: we were partners at work as well as husband and wife and lovers,” Angela said at the time to Daily Mail .
“I don’t know how we had such a long marriage, but the simple fact was that we were devoted to one another.”
“We made all decisions jointly and we helped and supported each other constantly. My career was important to me but our children, Anthony and Deidre, always came first .”
4. Her first husband eventually came out as gay.
Angela and her first husband, fellow actor, Richard Cromwell, were able to maintain a solid friendship after their divorce, and Richard was eventually comfortable enough to admit to her that he was gay.
She later stated that it never occurred to her throughout their marriage that he might have been gay .
5. She was a singer before she became an actress.
Angela was always drawn to the performing arts. But before she realized her love for acting, she was a singer at a bar in Montreal, Canada, called the Samovar Club when she was 16 years old.
6. She played the teapot in Disney’s *Beauty And The Beast*.
Angela lent her voice over to Disney, playing the role of the housekeeper-turned-teapot.
Her character has become one of the most iconic in Disney’s cabinet, and most of all, timeless.
7. Her song in ‘Beauty And The Beast’ was recorded in one take.
Originally, she had some reservations about whether or not she would be able to pull off singing the title song of the film.
But she stepped into the recording booth and gave it a shot anyway, and it certainly paid off. She sang it all the way through, perfectly, in just one take .
“Ms. Lansbury — who I have admired my whole life — came in after being up all night […] and was a trooper,” Paige O’Hara, who played Belle, told ‘Insider’.
“We were all worried she would be too exhausted and then she comes out and sings ‘ Beauty and the Beast ‘ in one take .”
8. She has never won an Emmy.
Despite the unbelievable success of her television series, Murder, She Wrote , Angela never quite received the recognition that she deserved.
All 18 of her Emmy nominations never resulted in a win.
9. She was still acting in her final years of life.
Putting aside the fact that Angela was 96 years old , she was still doing what she loved!
She made an appearance in Mary Poppins Returns , and she voiced the Mayor of Whoville in an updated version of The Grinch .
10. Her son and daughter sadly struggled with drug addiction.
“It started with cannabis but moved on to heroin,” she told Daily Mail . This obviously was very hard on her.
“There were factions up in the hills above Malibu that were dedicated to deadly pursuits.”
11. Her daughter was in the same circle as Charles Manson.
“It pains me to say it but, at one stage, Deidre was in with a crowd led by Charles Manson,” she told Daily Mail .
“She was one of many youngsters who knew him – and they were fascinated. He was an extraordinary character, charismatic in many ways, no question about it.”
